Home/2018/July/06/Meet Four Engineering Profs for International Women in Engineering Day

Meet Four Engineering Profs for International Women in Engineering Day

More innovation, greater productivity, better governance: what organization wouldn’t want these things? One way companies can achieve them, a large body of research shows, is by having a diverse group of employees. Yet in Canada, women — who account for just 20 per cent of students who enroll in accredited undergraduate engineering programs in this country — make up under 13 per cent of practicing licensed engineers.

Over the past decade, Canada has seen positive developments on the gender diversity front. According to Engineers Canada, the percentage of women enrolled in engineering programs has gone up by about one per cent a year since 2008, and between 2006 and 2016, the number of female practising professional engineers increased from 12,740 to 26,113. But women are still vastly underrepresented in the engineering profession, and everyone who can make a difference — not just companies and educational institutions, but also parents and the media and entertainment industry — must continue to work to transform the STEM fields into places that are more reflective of the world around us.

In recognition of International Women in Engineering Day, we asked four UBC faculty members about their paths to engineering and what it might take to inspire more girls and women to follow in their footsteps.